>(and with the emotion I picked up as a reader, I can only imagine
>their power as the author...).

Yeah, when it hit Gryph exactly what had happened during Kate's final days with Mr. Carpenter, it drop-kicked him into an odd mental state for a good while.

(Up to that point, he knew the broad strokes of what had occurred, but hadn't sat down and worked through all of the details... or realized what the level of severity must have been.)

--truss.